Gothic Pieces for the October Art Elements Theme

There's something special about the monthly theme challenge at Art Elements. Each time the theme is announced, it feels almost magical - like the amount of possibility and inspiration contained within that single theme is boundless. It never fails to spark something in me, but I'm not always able to keep time from getting away from me. I was fortunate this month in that I pressed myself to get to the two ideas that came to me for this month's Gothic Theme from team member Jennifer. This challenge is open to any medium and really any interpretation. Jennifer pointed out Gothic architecture and literature, but also that it could go in any direction. I felt pulled toward the architecture immediately and used it to inspire my two pieces. 

This art journal spread includes a straightforward interpretation of Gothic architecture as I used an image of traditional gothic arches and transferred it into my journal using gel medium. 

I kept the whole spread subdued and aged-looking to mimic the ancient-ness of the gothic style. 

To get the "age" on the page, I used coffee to dye parts of the page and even the pieces I used in it. As well, crackle paste was employed. 

You can watch the magic of my whole Image Transfer in an Art Journal process on YouTube.

It came together just as I had hoped. 

I struggled more with my second piece. Instinctively, I knew I wanted to use this elongated chandelier crystal because the bottom portion reminds me of the spires that you often find on the top of Gothic-style churches.

And, to continue the goth/gothic theme, I soldered and darkened the top of it, planning to simply use some black faceted glass beads to make a necklace. However, I felt driven to add something more and bulk it up a little. I stumbled onto these old jewelry pieces that had a little of the gothic arch to it and altered the one on the right with Vintaj Patinas in hematite and onyx to more fit my theme.

From there, I started adding the beads to the altered cab, but the more I worked with it, the less I liked it. I had to make myself stop and sleep on it, even though I knew I was running short on time. The next day, I thought a bit more about the design and suddenly remembered some funky cameos that I bought last year. It took some searching to locate the Crypt Cameos from Tim Holtz, but they're perfect!

As you can see, the necklace is still a work-in-progress. I'll likely have to get more of those black beads to make the necklace as long as I want(which is really long.) But, that's not a problem. I'm just glad I got the pendant issue sorted. 

It's going to be a beauty of a necklace when I get done with it!

And, those are my contributions for this month's Art Elements theme challenge. You can find the other contributions in the October album in the Art Elements Community on Facebook. 

Don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions about either of these pieces. And, let me know if you played along with this challenge. I'd love to see what you created.